


A Regular Night Off

by KakumeiNoHi



Series: The Stories of Winter and her Partner [1]
Category: RWBY
Genre: Canon Universe, F/F, RWBY - Freeform, Winter Schnee - Freeform, rwby canon universe, rwby fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-31
Updated: 2020-08-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:14:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,411
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26223211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KakumeiNoHi/pseuds/KakumeiNoHi
Summary: Winter opened the door and entered. Even though she spent most nights in her personal quarters at the military base, it was good to return home every so often.Home obviously not being Schnee Manor, which back when she was younger, she used to only ever refer to as “home” as a formality.After she had been officially and financially cut off, the first thing  she decided on getting the moment she started making her own money was her very own place away from the manor.Away fromhim. Just thinking about that person made her blood boil to the point where it almost clouded her vision.She took off her gloves and her white military coat. While neatly hanging the coat on the hanger in the small doorway and putting the gloves in one of the pockets, she noticed the folded weapon on the floor leaning against the hanger. A weapon she was all too familiar with.All anger seemed to almost immediately vent out of her and smiling gently she walked into the living room to look for the owner of said weapon.
Relationships: Winter Schnee/Original Female Character(s)
Series: The Stories of Winter and her Partner [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1914799
Comments: 6
Kudos: 17





	A Regular Night Off

Winter opened the door and entered. Even though she spent most nights in her personal quarters at the military base, it was good to return home every so often.

Home obviously not being Schnee Manor, which back when she was younger, she used to only ever refer to as “home” as a formality.  
After she had been officially and financially cut off, the first thing she decided on getting the moment she started making her own money was her very own place away from the manor.  
Away from _him_. Just thinking about that person made her blood boil to the point where it almost clouded her vision.

She took off her gloves and her white military coat. While neatly hanging the coat on the hanger in the small doorway and putting the gloves in one of the pockets, she noticed the folded weapon on the floor leaning against the hanger. A weapon she was all too familiar with.  
All anger seemed to almost immediately vent out of her and smiling gently she walked into the living room to look for the owner of said weapon.

She didn't have to look for too long to find her partner lying on the sofa, sleeping soundly, one arm draping down the edge, still somehow holding onto a book, she was most likely reading, before sleep overcame her.

“She must be exhausted.” Winter sighed as she watched her partner's ears twitch ever so slightly. Wolf ears, as her partner would, rightfully so, always stress, not dog ears. There's a difference.

Unlike Winter who had decided to join the military, her partner since their first year at Atlas Academy, had always wanted to be an independent huntress.  
As such she would now occasionally leave Atlas for a few days, sometimes weeks and usually return dead tired. Winter's missions, albeit always related to military issues, weren't much different though and while they were no longer officially “partnered up”, they still referred to each other as “partners”.  
Over the years they had spent together at the academy and after however, the word had gained a different, more significant meaning for both of them.

Winter walked to the front of the sofa, and carefully sat down in front of her partner. It was a wide comfortable sofa that easily allowed that and one they had both decided on when they first moved in. It has been serving them well in many different ways...

Gently and carefully Winter placed the back of her fingers on the Faunus' cheek. She didn't want her partner, who was most likely still strung highly and in alert mode, after just having been on a mission for the past two weeks, to suddenly jolt up. She was using her other hand to take the book, when her partner started to stir.

“Winter?”

Rubbing her eyes, her partner slowly sat up and immediately plopped her head onto Winter's shoulder. She put her arms around Winter's waist while nuzzling into her neck.

Winter remembered how when they first met she would shove her partner aside when she got a little too close even _just standing_ next to her. Physical affection, well affection in general, really, wasn't something Winter was used to or learned how to react to growing up.  
She had very faint memories of her mother carrying her around and showing her the garden, when she was very young. One day however she suddenly stopped doing so and even back then Winter started to sense how her mother became less caring over time...  
It wasn't until she was a bit older however that she started to have a faint idea as to why and she was barely a teenager when she finally had figured out what was going on. Back then it was only a matter of time until everything finally snapped and fell apart.

As such the only form of affection Winter truly remembered growing up were the pats on their heads dear sweet Klein would give her and her younger siblings whenever they did well on their recitals, practices, studies or they just simply ate all of their vegetables without complaining. And even those pats were rare because he only ever dared doing so whenever their parents weren't looking their way.

It wasn't until she met her partner, who was what some people would describe as a “very touchy-feely kind of person” that Winter would get used to not just receiving, but also showing physical affection.  
And although she herself would be the first to silently admit that she was not the best at the later, Winter had since made it a point to always hug her little sister goodbye after meeting her, even if they couldn't see each other as often anymore.  
Winter could always sense the small girl freezing up at first from not being used to getting pulled into a hug, much like she would, but she could also feel her completely and happily leaning in the moment she realizes what Winter was doing. Winter would love to show the same affection towards her brother, but reaching him was even more difficult. Whitley was even younger than Weiss when Winter left and she was very well aware of how he had been fed all kinds of lies about his oldest sister...

“Welcome back.” Winter greeted her partner. Her partner lifted her head to look deeply into Winter's eyes.

“Why, hey there, gorgeous, so you also come around here often?” she said with an exaggerated very over the top sultry voice.

Winter rolled her eyes at her partner. She was also a shameless, annoying flirt and her wide smirk showed that she very much knew it herself.  
Still Winter would be lying if she said that she didn't love that part of her just as much as the rest. She would never tell her to her face though. Never.

Winter heard a short giggle. “Oh, you love it and you know it.”  
Yes. She loved it and she knew it, but again, Winter would never straight up tell her so. Her partner nuzzled back into Winter's neck.

“Did you have dinner already?” Winter asked.

“No, I wanted to wait for you to come home, so we could eat together. I came back this afternoon and I didn't want to bother you at work, so figured I'd take a shower, clean up, read a bit and then start cooking, but well...”

“...you fell asleep on the sofa, because you don't know when to quit and just properly rest.”

“You know, my love, those who live in glass houses should not throw stones...”

Winter put her palm on the Faunus' face and shoved her off her neck. It wasn't a forceful shove and it was received with a small whine and a measly “Nooooo....” as her partner dropped back putting her own arm over her face on the sofa and Winter got up. Winter couldn't help but to smile at her partner's antics.  
Antics that very well managed to hide how much of an actually very skilled huntress she was and how she should not be taken lightly in a fight.

“You were gone for two weeks and just looking at you exhausts me, now rest up while I make us some food.” As Winter started to turn to walk to the kitchen her arm was suddenly grabbed.

“Winter. Honey. Babe. Sweetie. I love you, but your food tastes of necessity.”

Winter lowered and turned her head to side. She crossed her arms in front of her chest. Her cooking wasn't _bad_ per se. She followed the recipes well, nothing ever got burned and it was perfectly edible without causing any distress to the stomach.

“That's it though.” her partner had once said. “It tastes like a machine made it. Too perfect. There's not enough _loooove and spice_ in it.”

Arguing about how she had put in the exact right amount of spices and how love wasn't a tangible condiment had only earned Winter a mockingly sympathetic fake teary-eyed look from her partner, even her ears were pulled back in fake sadness. She would always pull out the theatrics whenever Winter's pride and perfectionism would get the better of her, mostly because she knew that it would grind Winter's gears and pull her off her high horse.  
That said Winter could also not argue against how much better her partner's cooking genuinely tasted.

Her partner had gotten up and was now standing next to Winter. She put her hand on the cheek facing away from her, turned Winter to face to the front and placed a kiss on her other cheek. She could do so easily since she was just a tad taller than Winter who was still standing in her heels.

“Stop sulking and go take a shower and change, while I do the cooking.”

“I'm not sulking!” - “Could have fooled me.” - Winter turned her head to retort, but her partner disappeared immediately. What an annoying semblance she had. Yet Winter couldn't help but to laugh a little as she heard rumbling in the kitchen.

\----------

They had finished putting all of the dishes in the dishwasher and Winter was making tea while her partner was sitting on the sofa trying to find something for them to just watch and relax to. Some kind of documentary most likely since Winter thought that if they were just going to “just laze around” like that they might as well watch something educational while doing that.

While she was making tea, Winter couldn't help but to sigh a little. She preferred coffee herself, but her partner refused to let her drink some in the evening.

“All it ever does for you this late is trigger a whole wave of anxiety and I'm not ready to spend all night trying to stop you from getting up and pacing around the moment I close my eyes on you. You need to sleep, because, even when you're not out on a mission, you bury yourself in way too much work when I'm not around.”

And so Winter has agreed and kept to drinking tea in the evenings if she ever needed anything warm to drink. Her partner was truly not wrong to insist on that and as such Winter has made two cups of herbal tea which she now placed on the low table in front of the sofa. “Hmmmm, thanks, babe.”

Winter sat down next to her partner, she had undone her bun and she was wearing a light blue simple sweater and white pajama pants. After her shower she had been thinking about wearing one of her long nightgowns before. She hadn't worn one in a while, but ultimately decided against it in favor of comfort. It's not that her nightgowns were particularly uncomfortable, but sometimes they were just hard to move in. She had also felt like she had grown out of wearing them and they somehow seemed to remind her of those years where she had to be a “proper heiress” and wear nice skirts, pretty dresses and frilly nightgowns.  
Although it is fair to say that she had also grown some kind of newfound fondness for them ever since her partner pestered her about wearing one once, when she found out that Winter still had some of them.

\----------

Winter had just explained to her why she stopped wearing nightgowns and all she said was:

“Oh, sorry...I get that. I'm sorry for annoying you about it, really....but man, I do feel though that rather than _She really used to be an heiress_ _actually_ I'd think _She's really beautiful_ if you wore one.”

It was one of those occasions were she was actually being sincere and not just a flirt. Her partner made it a point to always make sure to basically tell you when she was only being playful. She did so with everybody.  
So whenever she truly complimented Winter she simply just did so. Without any motive and without expecting anything in return.  
It was one of the things Winter loved about her partner. Her praise and compliments were genuine, nothing like what she would receive simply because she was a Schnee, simply because she had been the heiress back then. And more so her partner's critiques were harsh but also fair and at the same time whenever Winter was being too harsh and unfair she wouldn't just take it quietly as to not upset her. Her partner in many ways treated her like an equal and wouldn't let herself be treated any less.

That evening Winter had decided that she would wear a long light blue nightgown. She had taken a shower late on purpose that evening, so when she entered the bedroom her partner was already in bed waiting for her, reading. Winter still remembered how her partner looked at her.

She was completely speechless for the entire time it took Winter to slowly walk up to their bed.

”So?” Winter had asked her while getting into bed facing her, slowly drawing closer to her partner's face.

“You..you really didn't have to wear one, you know...if it makes you feel uncomfortable and all....” Her eyes had been darting all over the room.

“I know,” Winter had said. “I wanted to...and it seems like I'm not the one who's feeling uncomfortable.”

She couldn't help but to smile confidently, meanwhile she had been closing the gap between their faces more and more. Finally with a slightly defeated smile her partner's ears had flattened back and she started to meet her halfway “Beautiful _and_ stunning, I'd say.”

\----------

Winter was looking at her partner from the side. Her ears pointing forward and slightly to the side while she was still surfing through the programs. Winter couldn't help but to reach to the side. She gently placed her index finger at the base of her partner's ear and slowly stroke along the side all the way to the pointy tip, slightly pulling her ear down doing so. The moment Winter let go the ear twitched back up and her partner's head moved to the side along with it ever so slightly. Such expressive ears they were.

Winter knew that her partner didn't mind her ears being touched, either pair as a matter of fact. At least she didn't mind Winter doing it, she rather enjoyed it when Winter would run her fingers through her hair and over her ears, as she would often tell Winter herself. But then again Winter could say the same, she very much enjoyed relaxing to her partner playing with her hair. During those times it felt like her partner would empty her mind of all her worries, if only for a short time even.  
Her white hair was very much in contrast to her partner's dark hair which reached a bit below her shoulders. Usually she would wear it in a ponytail or a low bun. A _messy_ low bun which, although it suited her very well, drove Winter who was always so immaculate about even the angle of her own insane.  
Her partner's eyes were shining a bit brighter than usual, since they had dimmed the lights and the Faunus would easily adapt to seeing in the dark.

Winter couldn't help but to remember the first time she heard about her partner's “night-vision”. She had known that most Faunus could see in the dark, but not all of them could so she wouldn't assume.  
In fact back then, as a Schnee, she had always felt like she had to be particularly cautious and tiptoe around every Faunus she ever met. Not because she was scared of them as Faunus or because she despised them, but because she wanted to do different. Better.  
She was going to get yelled at and suffer through Jacques' mood no matter what, so she at least got some small satisfaction out of how much hell Faunus were giving him, while she was trying to at least shield her younger sister and brother as best as she could.

\-------

They had barely partnered up during the academy's initiation and they had decided to enter an old abandoned dust mine shaft - a very _very_ stupid idea in hindsight, but hubris alas was one of their many flaws back then.  
Having walked inside for quite a while, Winter had, with no lights to guide them or illuminate the path, slowly started to have trouble seeing. She wasn't however going to let her newly found partner think she was weak and couldn't handle herself, yet she had tried to stay closely behind her partner who seemed to have no troubles. Winter had in fact stayed so close that when her partner had suddenly decided to stop, she slightly bumped into her.  
She held out her hand. “What are you doing?” Winter had asked, looking at the stretched out arm. Her eyes had narrowed in a mixture of confusion and suspicion.

“I'm offering you my hand to hold in the dark.” She had said with a shy smile.

“I'm not a child who needs her hand held because she's scared in the dark.” Winter had said way more aggressively than she initially intended to.

“No. But you're human who needs to be guided, because she can't see in the dark.” Her partner had snarled back at her, her hand which had been wide open had slightly curled and her ears flattened against her head.

Not only had that been the first time somebody her age, a peer, had told her off like that, but she also at the same time had realized that the other girl had truly only meant well. Winter was sure she would have been nicer about explaining her reasons if she hadn't overreacted like she had. Winter instantly regretted having snapped at her like that.  
Neither Winter nor her partner could change the fact that one of them could see in the dark and the other couldn't. And yet Winter had yelled at her. She had yelled at somebody because of her own inability, because of something that neither one of them could control. Winter had sworn herself that she would never become somebody like that and yet she somehow had. That kind of behavior had slowly crept into her without her realizing. It was a good thing she had left for Atlas Academy.

After a moment of silence, Winter who had been holding her arm and looking at the ground finally decided to look up, the arm albeit slightly taken back was still stretched out.

“Hey, listen...” Winter struggled to find the words. “I'm...sorry. I'm sorry, I snapped at you. It's just, I...I risked a lot to be able to get here and I don't want to be...to fail...I won't be venting my anger and frustrations on you in the future...“

Winter couldn't clearly make out her partner's expression back then, but she saw her ears perking up.

“That....was surprisingly honest.”

“Well....so, uhm, is that hand still up for offer?”

Winter had decided to be the one to take the first step this second time.

“You really can see in the dark, right?”

“Maybe?”

“What do you mean 'maybe'?”

“I'm joking. Yes, I can.

Think of it as our first trust exercise.”

“This is stupid.”

“Your face is stupid.”

“Really now?”

“Yeah, really.

Your eyes are kinda pretty though.”

Winter had rolled her eyes, as she still does today and she had placed her hand into her partner's. Little did she know about how much fonder of holding that hand she would become over the years.

\----------

They had finally found a program to watch, a documentary about the forests in Mistral, and her partner put the remote aside and reached for her cup of tea. “Thanks again.” she said while sitting back on the sofa and crossing her legs on top. She softly blew on the tea, it was no longer too hot to drink, yet it was one of those things she did almost out of a habit. She could be incredibly cute.

“You're welcome.” Winter leaned back herself and pulled her knees to her chest, holding her own cup in one hand she snuggled closer to her partner's left to hook her free arm under hers and lean onto her shoulder.

Her partner chuckled “Someone's feeling lovey-dovey today.”

“Don't be a pest.”

Another chuckle as Winter felt a kiss softly being placed on her head.

**Author's Note:**

> This being my first work of fanfiction ever, I'm not really sure about whether or not I'll expand on this small canon-universe headcanon that I had. I say headcanon because that is what this started as. It's been in my mind for so long now that when I finally started putting the words down to get it out of my head more dialogue and text just started to flow out naturally and it turned into a fullblown story or well several stories enveloped by one, really xD I even had half a mind to make it but more steamy, but I figured I'd keep it for the General Audience for now, I mean I can always add a second version ;)
> 
> (Edit: Part 8 of the The Stories of Winter and her Partner series has the steamy continuation of this ;) )


End file.
